Chris Schneider is a superstar agent at Private Berlin, Germany headquarters for the world's most powerful investigation firm. He keeps his methods secret as he tackles Private's most high-profile cases - and when Chris suddenly disappears, he becomes Private Berlin's most dangerous investigation yet. Mattie Engel is another top agent at Private Berlin, gorgeous and ruthlessly determined - and she's also Chris's ex. Mattie throws herself headfirst into finding Chris, following leads to the three people Chris was investigating when he vanished....

Publisher's Summary

Private Berlin has the extraordinary pace and international sophistication that has powered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Patterson's number-one best seller The Postcard Killers.

In Europe's most dangerous city....

Chris Schneider is a superstar agent at Private Berlin, Germany headquarters for the world's most powerful investigation firm. He keeps his methods secret as he tackles Private's most high-profile cases - and when Chris suddenly disappears, he becomes Private Berlin's most dangerous investigation yet.

An investigator is searching....

Mattie Engel is another top agent at Private Berlin, gorgeous and ruthlessly determined - and she's also Chris's ex. Mattie throws herself headfirst into finding Chris, following leads to the three people Chris was investigating when he vanished: a billionaire suspected of cheating on his wife, a soccer star accused of throwing games, and a nightclub owner with ties to the Russian mob. Any one of them would surely want Chris gone - and one of them is evil enough to want him dead.

And she's after more than the truth....

Mattie's chase takes her into Berlin's most guarded, hidden, and treacherous places, revealing secrets from Chris's past that she'd never dreamed of in the time they were lovers. On the brink of a terrifying discovery, Mattie holds on to her belief in Chris - in the face of a horror that could force all of Europe to the edge of destruction and chaos.

James Patterson has taken the European thriller to a masterful new level with Private Berlin, an adrenaline-charged, spectacularly violent and sexy novel with unforgettable characters of dark and complex depths. Private Berlin proves why Patterson is truly the world's number-one best-selling author.

Even as pulp fiction, this book is not worth the time. The characters, how the characters act in the story, and the action is just not internally consistent. Each problem is a small one in itself; in total the careless writing kills the story. There are lots of examples, but here are a couple. 1) Two characters rush to another city in an attempt for stop a murder (although calling ahead might have been simpler and more effective). They take a private jet for its speed and efficiency. But when they arrive they don't have a private car waiting to rush them to the site of the action, but instead take a cab! 2) One of the characters is put in situations by others to investigate the loss of her former fiancee. It didn't ring true that she, rather than someone not emotionally involved, would be sent.

This book is about torture, past and present, which seems to be a theme these days. In the Dragon tattoo books, it was a necessary part of the tapestry of the story. Here it is just gratuitous and tedious. In fact, this entire book was tedious.

(The only positive note was that January LaVoy was a terrific reader.)

Would you try another book from James Patterson and Mark Sullivan and/or January LaVoy and Ari Fliakos ?

The private series has been written by too many authors to have an continuity. The limited interaction with Jack Morgan in the latest book was poor. I am starting to back away from the dual authors with James Patterson.

Has Private Berlin turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I thought the performace was ok but the story was rushed

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Private Berlin?

I would of added some context. His readers are American and history behind the wall falling would of added to the story.

Any additional comments?

Disappointed with the book. the story was rushed and not well thought out.

I have loved the previous "Private" books, this one, not so much. I should have read it rather than listen to it. The writing is very poor, for a Patterson Novel. And yes, I know Patterson didn't write a word of it. His 'co-author' is the true author of these books, but he did put his name on it, and the Patterson name carries certain expectations. Those were not met this time out.

There were a number of disconnects: one of the investigators wondering if a soccer player, theretofore not mentioned in connection with the victim, could have been responsible for the situation. Another disconnect was the description of the investigator's son as being 'intuitive about his mother's moods--when all he did was make a logical connection due to the presence of a cat in the house. And his happiness ran counter to her sad mood. How is THAT intuitive? A third disconnect concerns a list the investigator found at the victim's house, which she hadn't read until later, yet she already knew that the victim was supposed to be seeing the soccer player--before she read the list! I am trying not to give away too much, but I have to point out the victim had been 'missing' for quite sometime, and the last time the investigator saw him was weeks ago, in the timeline of the book. So... how is it possible that she makes these undocumented connections? I'll tell you how... High School level writing and plot development.

As for the performance, even though there is a man (Ari Filakos) and a woman (January Lavoy) AND Ari DOES voice a man in the same segment that January is voicing the women, for some inexplicable reason, January gives voice to Jack Morgan, who comes off sounding like a female bobybuilder with a headcold. She also voices her partner who sounds as you would expect "Moose" to have sounded in the old Archie comic books.

I am too far into this story to stop now, I want to see how this is resolved, but this is NOT Private's finest hour. Though the storyline is compelling...

Absolutely the worst book I have read since joining Audible 5 years ago. I have purchased and listened to 24 of Patterson's books and enjoyed them all until this wretched attempt of literary garbage. The narrator was the worst of any I've heard of the hundreds of books I've listened to from Audible. Also the characters were ghastly and the story line was disgustingly vulgar. I enjoy colorful romance and murders with some gore, but this was over the top nauseatingly. Please tell Mr. Patterson to return to his former plot and story types and to use some of his former narrators that sounded at least somewhat masculine..

What made the experience of listening to Private Berlin the most enjoyable?

I thought the story was very engaging and the performances were solid. I read other reveiws and was reluctant to purchase but I'm glad I did. I think others might have been too hard on the book - it is after all James Patterson, not Dickens.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. At the end, I actually sat in my car for an extra 10 minutes just so I could finish the story.

What does January LaVoy and Ari Fliakos bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

At first I thought Ari's portrayal of the "villian" would annoy me, but I not only got used to it, but got really creeped out by it - I think that was the point. They also did a very good job with the German words which I would have butchered trying to read them myself.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not extreme. Patterson (and the others he co-writes with) are pretty formulamatic. It's CSI in a book, but I know that going in and enjoy the adventure. It's not heady.

I found this story line disjointed. I didn't really care about most of the characters. I wish Patterson and his Crew would stop being so graphic, sadistic and brutal. Skip this Patterson too. For all the praise he gives the Berliners in the Epilog, I felt the story lacking in German influence. It could have taken place anywhere.

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